By George! Descendants of monarch have to ask Queen's PERMISSION to marry due to 1772 law

King George II: His son mistrusted the men of the family so much that, centuries later, the whole family tree must suffer

In every bride and groom's worst nightmare, someone rushes up the stairs of the church at the last moment and shouts: 'I object!'

But in their most wildest nightmares, no-one would ever expect Queen Elizabeth to be the wedding assassin.

Still - however ludicrous this scenario sounds - hundreds of descendants of King George II have had to live with this reality for 240 years.

For an ancient law, passed in 1772 and still in existence, prevents any descendant of the Hanoverian monarch from marrying without the ruling monarch's explicit consent.

And this law is still being
practiced, with Buckingham Palace officials turning up to weddings to
confirm the Queen's consent - bringing with them official parchments
signed by the Queen.

The outlandish situation was caused after King George III - angered by his two brothers' secret marriages to 'common women' - decided the ruling monarch should have absolute decree over who married who in his family.

'Archbishop, I have some concerns...': While we don't expect to see the Queen interrupting a service anytime soon, the reality is that she must agree to every wedding of King George II's descendants

LEGACY OF FAMILY FEUD

The Queen's current bundle of paperwork is caused by a legacy of secret romances, differences in class, and the fury of a son.

However it is not King George II at blame here, but his grandson, King George III.

He was incensed by the discovery in
1771 that his brother Prince Henry had secretly married a 'social
climbing commoner', Anne Horton, and fled to France.

King George III in his royal attire

Maybe one family drama might have
been okay - indeed might be expected. But then George III discovered his
other brother, Prince William, had done something very similar,
marrying the illegitimate daughter of Sir Henry Walpole, MP.

Now doubly-incensed, George III stuck
a clause into the following year's Royal Marriages Act - and decreed
that any descendants of his father must ask permission from the ruling
monarch.

And that's why Queen Elizabeth II
still occasionally finds herself called into meetings of the most
trivial relevance to the welfare of the nation.

Only
today are there moves from the Palace to amend the Royal Marriages Act
of 1772, which will save the Queen some paperwork - but it's not even
that simple.

For the bizarre legal situations keep piling up - the Queen and her officials were legally obliged to ask all the leaders of the Commonwealth to help remove this arguably trivial clause.

But however trivial this sounds to the nation at large, it is a huge matter for those very real descendants
of King George II, for
without the Queen's permission their marriages could be deemed illegal.

The Commonwealth's debate on the matter may have been overlooked by the world at large, as the arguably more important discussions centred on whether females have an equal claim to the throne or not.

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The Honourable Mrs Katharine Nicolson, the King's sixth great-granddaughter, told The Times how an official from the Palace signed off on her wedding - in person - in 1980.

She said: 'A man dressed in a morning coat was sent, although I don't know who sent him. He carried with him the register and then he p***ed off again.

'We've got a beautiful parchment document with a big seal on it, and it's signed by the Queen.'

Another bizarre situation? Mrs Nicolson told The Telegraph that when her father, Alexander Ramsay, decided he wanted a quick marriage to Flora Fraser, now Lady Saltoun, he had to put in an urgent request to the Queen.

So the Queen, on a holiday on the Royal Yacht Britannia, was suddenly called into a rushed Privy Council so she could weigh the pros and cons of the marriage and then give it the royal approval.

Mrs Nicolson said: 'The crucial point is that it's the law and so you have to do it.

'If someone wanted to make trouble then they could, and legally we would not be married.'

Hopefully, the situation will be resolved in due course, saving the Queen from a fair bit of paperwork - and saving a bunch of brides and grooms from many sleepless nights.